June 6, 2003
The radical Islamic movement Hamas said it had broken off talks with Mahmud Abbas over his bid to bring an end to anti-Israeli attacks, setting itself on a collision course with the new Palestian premier, who has vowed to end such violence. The announcement was accompanied by calls for demonstrations in the Gaza Strip Friday against the "dangerous results" of this week's US-Israeli-Palestinian summit in Jordan. And it followed reports that Israeli forces were bracing on Friday, a Jewish holiday, against the prospect of more attacks by Palestinian militants.
"Abu Mazen (as Abbas is commonly known) does not represent us, and we refuse to meet with him because there is no point to it," a senior Hamas leader, Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, told AFP. "In undertaking dangerous commitments that the Palestinian people categorically reject, Abu Mazen closed the door to dialogue," Rantissi said. The summit in Aqaba, Jordan "declared war on the Palestinian people," and the Abbas' government was not doing anything for legitimate national rights, he said. Rantissi said Abbas had caved in, effectively "fulfilling all the wishes of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon" by "giving away historical Palestinian rights, notably on Jerusalem, the right of refugees to return and the freeing of prisoners."
At the summit, which brought together Abbas, Sharon and US President George W. Bush to discuss the internationally drafted peace roadmap, Abbas had said there was "no military solution to our conflict. We repeat our denunciation and renunciation of terrorism and violence against Israelis wherever they might be." The roadmap calls on the Palestinians to curb radicals and Israelis to freeze all settlement activity and dismantle outposts, in the first steps leading to a Palestinian state in 2005. "We will exert our full efforts using all our resources to end the militarization of the intifada, and we will succeed. The armed intifada must end, and we must resort to peaceful means in our quest to end the occupation," Abbas said. But Hamas, its smaller rival, Islamic Jihad, and two secular radical groups quickly responded, saying they would refuse to lay down their arms.
Calls for an end to violence were repeated by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, in remarks published Friday in the official Al-Ahram daily. He said the intifada had run its useful course and to continue it would threaten the loss of the gains that it had achieved. Stating the "general Arab view," he said the "intifada has succeeded in moving things toward recognition of a Palestinian state, but the appropriate measures need to be taken at each step. "There is a time for everything," he told the official daily Al-Ahram. "The armed intifada has reached the point where it cannot further achieve its objective, and it will be exploited against the Palestinian people and their rights." Maher said the "gains (of the intifada) need to be preserved so that they are not transformed into losses."
The situation on the ground was relatively quiet Friday, with Palestinian mortar rounds fired ineffectually at Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip and fighting in Rafah, as Israeli troops moved into to destroy tunnels used for arms smuggling. But Israeli army radio reported that security forces were on guard against the prospect of attacks by Palestinian militants. The radio, citing military sources, said "the number of serious alerts about attempted anti-Israeli attacks are multipying." Israelis are commemorating Shavuot, or the Feast of the Weeks, which celebrates the harvest season in Israel and also commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses.
News of the alerts follows the killing Thursday of two Palestinian militants in the West Bank that the Israeli army said belonged to Hamas and were preparing suicide attacks. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad said the slain militants were members of his group. A senior aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Nabil Abu Rudeina, reacted by saying Israel had already returned to "its assassination policy after the two summits," referring to Aqaba and another US-led peace meeting in Egypt. Earlier Thursday, Israeli police said they discovered the bodies of a young Israeli man and a teenage girl whom they suspect were murdered by Palestinian militants just west of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Sharon was reportedly set to hold in the coming days his third meeting with Abbas in recent weeks. Israeli public radio said Friday Abbas would brief him on the steps being taken against militant groups and on how he will deploy his forces across the Palestinian territories. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and his aides were also to discuss the dismantling of rogue settlement outposts that Sharon promised in Aqaba.
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